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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/28143405">see the credits clear through to the end</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/impossiblyincredible/pseuds/impossiblyincredible'>impossiblyincredible</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Blaseball (Video Game)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Gen, Post Season Eleven, San Francisco Lovers (Blaseball Team), but i'm having fun with the tarot blessings!, i also think they should be friends this is the hill i'll die on, purely speculation about s12 tbh</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-12-18</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-12-18</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-10 16:01:31</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>2,138</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/28143405</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/impossiblyincredible/pseuds/impossiblyincredible</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>“‘Cause, first of all, look.” Kichiro leans forward, tapping on the card at the top of the spread. “Judgement was the first one I pulled, and that's what makes me sure that the blessings have to do with the meanings of the cards. Like, it's not totally unrelated, you know? Judgement has to do with like, destiny, absolution, consequences of your actions, so it’s very… karmic. And it’s also the one that...”</p><p>“That we got,” Jaylen finishes grimly. “Great.”</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Jaylen Hotdogfingers &amp; Kichiro Guerra</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>13</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>14</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>see the credits clear through to the end</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>hello! this is purely the result of me speculating HARD about what the tarot card blessings could mean for the future for like three days straight so</p><p>disclaimer #1: i know the coffee cup is technically noncanon but i thought it'd be cool if they knew it was coming + prepared for it (that's not a super major plot point in this tho)</p><p>disclaimer #2: if anyone's reading this post s12 then just know i wrote this like a week after the coffee cup, and as such, have no idea what the blessings do</p><p>hope you enjoy!</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <span>When the blessings come out, Jaylen has to stifle a laugh. Well, less of a laugh and more of a harsh, bitter exhale, but still, when she glances across the locker room, Kichiro’s grim expression mirrors hers. A collective groan from the team; they’d all been wanting the Lovers card, for obvious reasons, but since nothing in this godforsaken game goes how you want it to, they’re stuck with Judgement.</span>
</p><p><span>So it’s whatever. Ultimately, no one really makes a big deal about it, jaded as they all are, and getting home is a fairly quiet affair. It’s another couple of weeks before the Coffee Cup starts, so Jaylen’s looking forward to sleeping for the first time in fuck knows how long, actually. She can’t remember the last time she really slept and felt </span><em><span>rested</span></em> <span>because of it, but sometimes it’s just nice, she thinks, to be unconscious for a little while. Maybe Sutton can fly down to San Francisco and she can show her the city before the Cup, maybe they can pretend to be two normal girlfriends sightseeing downtown. That’s a thought.</span></p><p>
  <span>The BART is so empty this time of night, and Kichiro wordlessly offers her an earbud, one of those shitty wired ones from 2015. Jaylen takes it, just to have something to fill the silence, even though she hates Kichiro’s soft indie shit, and a faint smile flits across Kichiro’s face, swallowed up again by a furrowed brow and a hard set to her mouth.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Nudging Kichiro, she asks, “Hey. What’s the deal?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Hm?” Kichiro startles slightly. “Nothing, really. Just thinking about the blessing.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Cryptic as shit, right?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“They're honestly just letting us stew at this point," Kichiro says, frowning. “Do we even </span>
  <em>
    <span>know</span>
  </em>
  <span> when season twelve starts? No. They just let us sit here and work ourselves up about these stupid blessings like always.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Any idea what it’ll mean, though? Never really went in for that tarot shit before, but...” Jaylen almost doesn’t want to ask, doesn’t want to know what new, terrible thing they’re in for, but she’s never been able to stop herself from theorizing anyway.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Kichiro yawns. “I think so? I wanna be sure, though, so let me check at home and before I go all doomsday, yeah?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Ominous. But it's all the same to Jaylen anyway, so she shrugs, and Kichiro shoots her a questioning look, settling her head against Jaylen’s shoulder when she nods. The songs cycle in and out, but Jaylen doesn’t really absorb them, which is a good thing, she supposes, since it’s not like indie rock’s gotten any better since she’d listened to it last, and she has to consciously keep herself awake so that they don’t miss their stop like last time. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>The thing about the blessings is that you can never be sure who gets what, and in Jaylen’s opinion, that’s the most dangerous thing about them. It’s pretty obvious the gods have some kind of twisted plan for all of them, and even though teams can bid for blessings, ultimately it’s still up to them. They won’t know what Judgement really means until next season, and with the Coffee Cup coming up soon, who knows how long that’ll be? Not that she’s complaining, though. She'd be lying if she said she </span>
  <em>
    <span>completely</span>
  </em>
  <span> enjoyed time off, but she can at least recognize that she wouldn't be able to function without the siestas.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The train hisses to a stop at the Embarcadero station, and they heave themselves up and out, stumbling over the steps. From there, it’s ten minutes to their building, and yeah, maybe she keeps the earbud and listens to the shitty indie music while they walk, but that’s between her and God. And maybe Kichiro, even though she doesn’t call her out on it.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>It’s almost funny, Jaylen thinks, how easy it was to move in with Kichiro. She hadn’t even </span>
  <em>
    <span>liked</span>
  </em>
  <span> her at the start of the season, but Kichiro’d bullied her into getting tacos, once, twice, until it became some kind of post-Friday-practice ritual. Looking back, it’s hard to suppress the rush of gratitude that goes through her every time she thinks about it; without Kichiro firmly attaching herself to Jaylen’s side, the ice between her and the rest of the Lovers might never have thawed. Worse, without Kichiro, Jaylen might have been fine with that. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>From there, it turned into bunking together in hotel rooms, tolerating each other’s sleepless nights, and grudgingly becoming inseparable. She makes Kichiro watch Die Hard, and Kichiro makes her watch 10 Things I Hate About You, and they bicker about the movies like they’ve known each other for a decade, and bit by bit, Jaylen let herself have this.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>She still misses Mike like a phantom limb, but it’s nice to call herself someone’s friend again. And Kichiro had a spare room, so almost without talking about it, she started to bring more and more stuff over, and Kichiro definitely hadn’t missed it but also never said anything, so here they are. Roommates, with an apartment that’s </span>
  <em>
    <span>theirs</span>
  </em>
  <span>. What a thing.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>By the time they reach said apartment, Jaylen’s a lot more awake than she was ten minutes ago. Kichiro steps in after her, and without even taking off her coat, makes a beeline toward her bedroom. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“...I’m gonna shower, yeah?” Jaylen calls after her, but somehow, she doubts Kichiro will care if she snags the first shower. She probably wouldn’t even notice if Jaylen used up all the hot water, the way she’s acting right now.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Uh-huh,” Kichiro responds from the other room. “I swear, if the water’s cold I’ll dismember you in your sleep.” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Jaylen snorts. Scratch that, then. “Whatever,” she calls back, wandering into her room.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>When she emerges from the restroom, tossing her clothes in the laundry bin, Kichiro’s still sitting on her bed in her jacket, staring down at a spread of cards. Jaylen falls onto the bed next to her, trying to figure out whatever Kichiro sees.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“So what’s the verdict? How fucked are we, on a scale of one to... whatever, I guess.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Kichiro places one last card down, glancing at Jaylen, sprawled across the bed in her sweats, and snorts. “Sure, just make yourself comfortable. Go right ahead.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I will, thank you,” Jaylen replies. “But you’re avoiding the question.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I’m not—”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You </span>
  <em>
    <span>are</span>
  </em>
  <span><em>.</em> Right now, even.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Kichiro sighs, staring daggers through the cards. “Okay, don’t take this as like, word of God or anything, but I think something bad’s gonna happen. Like, changing-the-game-entirely bad.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Of course something’s going to happen, Jaylen thinks. Of fucking course. But she swallows her unease, taking a deep breath. “To the team, or to the league?” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>It’s a wicked thing to hope for, but she almost hopes it’s a league-wide thing. At least then, everyone’s in the same boat, and they can deal with it together. For just the Lovers to be hurt seems almost cruel; it’s not like they </span>
  <em>
    <span>asked</span>
  </em>
  <span> for Jaylen’s rotten luck.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I think,” Kichiro says, “it’s going to start with us, but end up spreading to everyone else too.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Well, fuck.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“‘Cause, first of all, look.” Kichiro leans forward, tapping on the card at the top of the spread. “Judgement was the first one I pulled, and that's what makes me sure that the blessings have to do with the meanings of the cards. Like, it's not totally unrelated, you know? And Judgement has to do with like, destiny, absolution, consequences of your actions. It’s very… karmic. And it’s also the one that...”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“That we got,” Jaylen finishes grimly. “Great.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Not just that, either, it’s the one we got instead of the Lovers, which is about choice. Like, yeah, no shit, the Lovers is about love, but mostly it’s about </span>
  <em>
    <span>choice</span>
  </em>
  <span><em>.</em> So.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Jaylen’s mind wanders to Sutton, probably asleep in Baltimore right now, and she thinks about how, in the aftermath of Ruby Tuesday, they’d argued, but then they’d made dinner together, about how Sutton never wavered, even when Jaylen felt more monster than murderer, about how at the end of the day, she chose Jaylen over being a good person again and again and again, and Jaylen thinks that maybe love and choice are a little more intertwined than everyone makes it out to be.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Wait, so,” she sighs, glancing up at Kichiro. “You’re saying we were gunning for the card about choice and we got the judgement-day-absolution card instead?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Now that she thinks about it, Kichiro was the one who pushed most strongly for the Lovers, wasn’t she? The rest of the team just went along with it for the brand, for the look, but Kichiro...</span>
</p><p>
  <span>A single, resigned nod.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Great,” Jaylen repeats. “Do I even wanna know about the other cards, then?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Well, yeah, so Judgement was the first, but I also drew the six of swords reversed and the two of swords reversed, which is like, stagnation and stagnation squared. So we're stuck here.” Kichiro lets out a short laugh, leaning back on her hands. “Well. More so than we already are.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“And…" Jaylen hesitates for a split second. “Not to be that asshole, but are you </span>
  <em>
    <span>sure</span></em><span><em>?</em>”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“It’s not like this is an exact science, but the way I haven’t drawn a single positive card is. A little worrying.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Mm.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Stagnation, absolution, paralysis…” Kichiro trails off. “I don’t know, it’s just. Every time I think the league can’t get worse, it does. Tenfold.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“So ‘a little worrying’ is—”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“The understatement of the century? Yeah.” She lets out an exhale, and Jaylen can almost see the dread rising off her in waves. “Fucking terrifying is more like it.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Yeah, I got that, Guerra, thanks.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Oh, shut up,” Kichiro sighs, but there's no heat behind it.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Jaylen doesn’t even know if an impending cataclysmic event could shock her anymore. Every day already feels like the earth opens up and swallows someone else, and she thinks most players in the league have had their own personal End Of All Things already, that moment when you just give in to the game, play your role, blink against the grief, and step up to the mound again. She certainly already had hers, several times over.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Are you gonna tell the rest of the team?” Jaylen asks. She's going to tell Sutton, but Kichiro definitely already knew that, so it's not like she feels bad about it. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Kichiro considers the question. Jaylen really wouldn’t blame her if she decided to keep it to herself. No reason to worry the others, especially if it turns out to not turn out as badly. But it’s fucking </span>
  <em>
    <span>blaseball</span>
  </em>
  <span><em>.</em> She’d be pleasantly surprised if no one dies.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Probably not,” Kichiro says. She doesn’t elaborate, but Jaylen gets it.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>For another couple minutes, they just stay there, her lying down and Kichiro leaning back up against the headboard. Jaylen really, </span>
  <em>
    <span>really</span>
  </em>
  <span> hopes she’s wrong about this. She doesn’t want to see what will happen to Kichiro if she ends up being right; the last thing this fucking game needs is a prophet on top of everything else.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>It occurs to her that if she was a better person, she’d worry about the ramifications for the other teams, the other players, the league as a whole, but she’s pretty much at capacity right now, she thinks wryly. Sutton, Mike, and somehow, Kichiro have soaked up everything she’s got, and you know, as long as what’s best for them also happens to be best for the league, then Jaylen will be just fine. It’s not like the rest of the league is falling all over themselves to care about her, so it’s whatever. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>She glances up at Kichiro, whose eyes are closed, and she wonders just how long Kichiro had worried about something like this happening. It's not like she's a stranger to blessing-related burdens (hell, half the league has a blessing-related burden), but shit, Kichiro hadn't let on at </span>
  <em>
    <span>all</span>
    <span>.</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <span>“Guerra.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Hm?” Kichiro seems almost asleep, still in her coat and jeans, and she doesn’t open her eyes when Jaylen nudges her.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“It’s past eleven, dude. Fucking </span>
  <em>
    <span>shower</span>
  </em>
  <span><em>.</em>”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Kichiro makes a startled sort of noise, glancing at her phone. “Shit.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Jaylen sits up, putting on her most innocent face. “I can push you off the bed if you want some motivation—”</span>
</p><p> <span>“</span><em><span>Not</span></em><span> necessary,” Kichiro grumbles, shifting to sit at the edge of the bed. “I’m going. You should sleep too.”</span></p><p>
  <span>“Yeah, I think I will.” Jaylen stands too, stretching. “And hey, dude? We’re gonna be just fine.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Kichiro doesn’t look up at her, and when she speaks her voice is deliberately, carefully neutral. “Are we?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Yeah. We are,” she replies. There isn’t really much more to say, is there? They’ll get through it because they have to. It’s that or dying, and Jaylen’s spent too much time checking her pulse for that shit anymore.</span>
</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>thanks for reading! feel free to leave a kudos or comment if you liked it!</p><p>also i'm on tumblr @goodwinmorin so you can definitely come speculate with me there! &lt;3</p></blockquote></div></div>
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